Heart attack treatment delay can result in early retirement

Delays in treating patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction postpones their return to work and speeds early retirement, Danish researchers say. Kristina Laut, a Ph.D student from Aarhus, Denmark, said the study investigated whether system delay was associated with the duration of absence from work or time to retirement in STEMI patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The study included 4,061 patients age 67 and younger admitted with STEMI between Jan. 1, 1999-Dec. 1, 2011 and treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The Danish National Register on Public Transfer Payments provided data on work outcomes. Only patients who were full- or part-time employed three weeks before their STEMI admission were included. After four years of follow up, 91 percent of the study population had a 21 percent increase in retirement rate. The findings were presented at the The Acute Cardiac Care Congress, the annual meeting of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association of the European Society of Cardiology in Madrid.